Thirty Days of Music, Day Sixteen

Still trying to get my inner ear to rebalance itself, using this as a way of distracting myself from the swaying.

This might take some time.

Day 16: A song that’s a classic favourite

2020: “Common People”, Pulp

Oh look, for the third week in a row a Pulp song emerges. But again, I was drunk on Britpop back in 2020 (Still am, let’s be honest) and when it came to classics, “Common People” was the first thing that popped into my head. I don’t think I need to tell you why, do I?

Oh OK, here’s a couple of Cliffnotes:

Lyrics? The pinnacle of biting and witty, one of Jarvis’ finest hours.

Sound? Of its time yet so timeless, with the unforgettable guitar riff, keyboard notes and violin swishes.

Now to choose something different but here’s the thing. Choosing a ‘classic favourite’ is a very broad category and I don’t want to just end up going for something from the 90s again. So what I’m going to do is I’m actually going to pick two songs; one of my own choosing, and one from a randomly generated year.

We’ll start with my own choice first:

2025, choice one: “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, Tears For Fears

To me there is no song that exists that is aging more and more gracefully than this. With dictators and big businesses putting their hands over the world’s mouth and suffocating the life out of it, it makes you wonder if Tears For Fears knew something we didn’t. Or maybe they believed that it couldn’t get worse at the time they made “…Rule The World”. Sorry, lads, it can indeed.

Incidentally, I heard this in a pub before leaving Amsterdam over the weekend and it was one of the three things that kept revolving around my head during that trip home. Worse songs to have on repeat when you’re sea sick and sleep deprived.

Ok, so the next song has to be a classic favourite from a randomly chosen year and that year is…

1976. Plenty of great albums from that year. Station to Station, Ramones, High Voltage, Arrival, and so on. But towards the end of the year, a certain band came along and released a debut single that definitely qualifies as a ‘classic favourite’.

2025, choice two: “Anarchy in the U.K”, Sex Pistols

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of the Pistols. All the respect in the world for them, but I’m not really the target market for pure punk. If I’d ever lived around that time period and gone to one of their gigs, I would’ve been absolutely twatted. Plus, can you imagine me with a mohawk and covered in safety pins? God forbid.

But the Pistols were a seed, one that grew to absurd proportions. That live show in at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester that led to the creation of Joy Division and Factory Records, that in turn led to the discovery of the Happy Mondays, which then led to Madchester and baggy music and ultimately to Britpop. That is the most trivial condensation of a story you’ll ever read but it’s true. One giant splash and ripples aplenty. So really I do have a lot to thank the Sex Pistols for.

And more still for those they no doubt inspired upon the release of “Anarchy in the U.K”, as the punk genre exploded and more was to come throughout the rest of the 70s. I don’t think there was a lot of younger folks at the time who didn’t want to emulate that sneer and growl of Johnny Rotten, or weren’t inspired by that opening proclamation of being the Antichrist. It is my favourite Pistols song. Skating around Alcatraz with it blasting on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 will have helped massively.

It’s a classic in every sense of the word, regardless of your thoughts and feelings. Its reputation in music folklore is set in stone, and nothing will change that.

Thirty Days of Music, Day Fifteen

I cocked up.

So I am back from my trip abroad, went to Amsterdam for a few days. Had some fun with my mates, enjoyed the sights and customs of the Dutch. My plan had been to be back home nice and early on Monday so I could post the fifteenth part of the 30 Day Song Challenge, no need to pre-write and upload it in case something happened.

Oh, but something did happen. We got the ferry back home on Sunday evening and the sea was rough as hell. No sleep and half my stomach lining down the bog. Monday was a write off as I spent pretty much all of it in bed waiting for my inner ear to regain its balance and my blood sugars to sort themselves out.

But I’m back in the land of the living now and that means you’ll get two posts in one day, so swings and roundabouts. First, let’s talk covers!

Day 15: A song you liked that’s a cover by another artist

2020: “Step On”, Happy Mondays

It must suck when your most famous and most-played song is a cover. The Mondays have a great repertoire – “Hallelujah”, “Tart Tart”, “Kinky Afro” to name a few – and Shaun Ryder is frankly a very slept on lyricist. But what makes “Step On” special is that does not sound like a cover at all, you would never guess it came from South Africa’s John Kongos. ‘You’re twisting my melon, man’ is a little flourish that immediately makes it the Mondays’ song now, but there’s also Paul Ryder doing a lot of heavy lifting with both bass and keyboards, and Mark Day turning in a signature Madchester guitar riff. No doubt Bez was doing some vital work too.

2025: “Do You Remember the First Time?”, Sophie Ellis-Bextor

A while back for the radio, I did an hour of Britpop that was comprised entirely of covers. Some were songs covered by established Britpop artists (A chunk of them coming from the Help! album from 1995), others by artists covering Britpop (such as Elvis Costello doing a rendition of Sleeper’s “What Do I Do Now?”). Looking back on that show, I think the best song I played was this live rendition Sophie Ellis-Bextor did of this Pulp classic. In fact, there have been times since where I’ve played it on the radio solely for the fact that on that particular day I kind of prefer it to the original. Sacrilege perhaps, but Sophie does it justice and then some.

Right, back with you this evening for another round.

Thirty Days of Music, Day Fourteen

Oh boy, this is just a wide open goal for cringe isn’t it? Might be best if I keep this one minimalist in case I devolve into self-pity.

Day 14: A song you’d love to be played at your wedding

2020: “Lucky Man”, The Verve

In my Britpop-obsessed mind, this seemed like the most obvious choice. To get to a wedding I’d be one lucky man indeed.

Mindset is still the same five years later…

2025: “Something Changed”, Pulp

Second most obvious. Sorry, I’m not putting much thought into this one. See you tomorrow.

Thirty Days of Music, Day Thirteen

Ah excellent! We get to spend even more time outside of the 90s.

Day 13: A song you like from the 70s

2020: “Stuck in the Middle with You”, Stealers Wheel

I know Tarantino took a massive hit to his credibility recently when he went after Paul Dano and seemingly the entire Internet turned round and said ‘The f*ck are you playing at?’. But you can’t fault the man’s taste in music, he knows some good sleeper songs waiting to be unearthed and introduced to the modern man. “Stuck in the Middle With You” was one of the first times he did that and I know some people can’t hear it without getting earache (If you know, you know) but me? I have a jolly old time with it. I may even find myself dancing about like Michael Madsen if the mood takes me. Sucks that we lost him this year.

2025: “Midnight Rendezvous”, Casiopea

The 70s is a melting pot when it comes to legendary songs by legendary artists. ABBA, Bowie, solo Beatles, the Who, Blondie, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, I could go on.

So instead, I want to turn back to my jazz fusion obsession from earlier this year and the band who turned that movement mainstream in the 70s. Casiopea. Their self-titled debut is a lovely little thrill ride, and “Midnight Rendezvous” is almost certainly the highlight of the LP. There’s a reason why they chose racing cars to go on the front cover, this song is great for driving to. Close your eyes and pretend you’re some shady character driving under the bright neon lights of the Tokyo midnight.

Thirty Days of Music, Day Twelve

Well I said I needed to get out of the 90s and wouldn’t you know it, I have to pick a song from my preteen years, aka the 2000s. Let’s add some variety to this shit for a change!

Day 12: A song from your preteen years

2020: “Ruby”, Kaiser Chiefs

I’ll admit this is the first and only song of the Kaiser Chiefs that I’ve heard, at least that I care to remember. But I definitely recall hearing it a lot around 2006/07 so that made it an easy choice for me last time I did the 30 Day Song Challenge.

But now I have to consider what to choose all these years later. My immediate thought is that Peter Kay charity single about Amarillo, mainly because whenever we went on the bus for a school trip, everyone would be singing it the whole way. You think 6-7 is bad? Spare a thought for the poor bastards who had to supervise us for hours on end while ad nauseam we would all sing ‘Tra la la la la la’ (with an ‘England’ on the end during the 2006 World Cup. I drew France that year in the class sweepstake. Bugger.)

Anyway, not going for that one. Here’s another one that just about sneaks into my preteen days.

2025: “I Gotta Feeling”, Black Eyed Peas

So no one really gives a toss about the Black Eyed Peas anymore do they? Am I right in thinking they peaked with this song, hence it still appears once in a blue moon on the radio??

Anyway it set me up for the night-out vibes I would rarely if ever experience as an adult but at least it successfully captured the tone of what it sung about. It’s another one I would regularly hear when I was younger, and I think I’m right in saying it cropped up a lot during school discos and trips. Other than that…I think it’s more of a guilty pleasure for me now. I don’t mind hearing it, but it’s not really something I’d have on repeat. But hey at least it resembles a tune, unlike most of what followed from the BEPs. “Dirty Bit”, anyone?